The Best of the 48 Hour Film Project Comes to AS220

The Best of The 48 Hour Film Project will play on August 22 at the AS220 main stage. Although the films selected have not been announced yet, there will be plenty to choose from as over 50 teams competed.

The competition challenges teams of filmmakers to make a movie in less than two days. That means you do everything — write it, shoot it, edit it, cry and sleep. To keep teams honest (although there is a theory that some teams try to write ahead of time), the teams are given a prop, a line of dialogue and a character at 7pmon Friday night. These elements must be incorporated into the film. This year’s character was Van or Vanna Trumbull, a detective, so plan on seeing a lot of fedoras. The prop was a helmet and the line of dialogue was, “Where did that come from?” Each team was required to incorporate these elements into the genre they chose out of a hat.

This is the 10th year that the Rhode Island Film Collaborative held the competition in Providence. The teams ranged from high school students to families looking for a weekend activity, professional filmmakers, film students and more than a few whackos. (I’m talking about you, Megaporker Productions.)

The purpose of the 48 is inspiration, and this year inspired some truly cool moments. “I’m pretty sure one film was partially filmed in Japan during the team leader’s honeymoon,” said Mel Rainsberger, producer. There also was a film made in a nudist colony and another whose characters all were cats.

The Best of show will cut out the riff-raff and leave you with about a dozen of the finest films ever made about a helmet wearing detective named Van (or Vanna) Trumbull.